Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Just a heads up that this podcast deals with violence
against women. If this topic isn't for you today, maybe
skip today's deep dive and we'll be back this afternoon
for your evening headlines.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Already, and this is the Daily OS. This is the
Daily OS. Oh now it makes sense. Good morning, and
welcome to the Daily OS. It's Thursday, the twenty fourth
of April. I'm Billy fitz.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Simon's I'm Zara Seidler.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Last month, the body of a nineteen year old girl,
Audrey Griffin, was found in a creek on New South
Wales central coast. She disappeared after walking home from a
night out with her friends. Police said at the time
that her death was not suspicious, but this week police
charged a fifty three year old man who was not
known to her with her murder. On today's podcast, we
(00:53):
are going to explain what we know about the death
of nineteen year old Audrey Griffin, and we're also going
to take a book look at what the major parties
are promising to do when it comes to domestic violence
in this country.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Billy, can we just start at the beginning of the
story and can you just walk us through what we
understand to have happened to nineteen year old Audrey Griffin.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
So this goes back to March to last month, and
so it was on Sunday, the twenty third of March
that we know a nineteen year old girl named Audrey
was walking home from a night out with her friends
in New South Wales Central Coast and we know that
she was trying to get an uber or a taxi
and that was at about two am that she left
(01:40):
her friends to try to get a ride home. Then
we know that her friends hadn't heard from her, and
they hadn't heard that she had got home safe, and
so they called the police and at about three am
on that Sunday morning, police were notified of the disappearance
of Audrey. Now, police then went to try and find
(02:01):
Audrey and they couldn't find her and that caused a
missing person investigation. So that was on the Sunday morning,
and then it was on the Monday afternoon that police
found the body of Audrey in a creek in Erna
on the Central Coast. And at the time police said
the death was not suspicious. Now I thought it was
(02:21):
just worth explaining because we covered this on the daily
Ods and there were a few comments saying why did
we not hear about this at the time, that a
girl who was nineteen years old had disappeared and had died,
And the reason for that is just from a media perspective. Usually,
when something is deemed as not suspicious, then the media
(02:41):
won't report on it, unless, of course it's a high
profile person. But it's only when there is a crime
involved that then the media usually starts reporting on a
story like that.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
And I think this idea of it moving from being
a non suspicious death to a suspicious death is what
is remarkable about the story because for those few weeks
police didn't suspect foul play, They didn't suspect that anyone
was responsible for her death, right.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, And it only changed last week when police appealed
for further information from the public about the incident. And
then it was on Monday this week when New South
Wales Police revealed that a fifty three year old man
had been arrested in Surrey Hills in Sydney and charged
with murder in relation to the teenager's death. Now, we
(03:32):
don't know too many details, but I'll go through what
we do know about the alleged crime at this point,
so New South Wales police alleged the man was involved
in a physical altercation with the victim prior to the
alleged murder. We also know that the two were not
known to each other, so they, as far as we know,
were strangers to each other who just crossed paths in
(03:55):
the early hours of that morning when the teenager was
trying to get home. We also know that when the
man was arrested this week, he was actually also charged
with eleven other domestic violence matters that were not related
to this alleged murder, So those are charges relating to
another alleged victim, nothing to do with the alleged murder
(04:18):
of Audrey Griffin as far as we know.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
I don't want to over explain here, but I do
just want to talk about the fact that you've said
alleged a number of times at this point, because I
think that for people who read the news and read
of crimes, it can sometimes be jarring to see or
hear the word alleged that many times, like you just
mentioned in that one sentence alone. But just to be
(04:42):
really clear, we have to say alleged because there has
been nothing proven in the court of law that suggests
that this man who was charged has been found guilty,
and until such time as somebody is found guilty in
the court of law, we continue to say alleged. So
I just wanted to mention that.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, and just to explain when we need to use it.
So when we explain Audrey's death, we don't need to
use the word alleged because obviously that is a fact.
But when we use the term murder, that is when
we have to say that is a crime. And so
that's an alleged crime that, like you said, has not
been proven yet.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And now to talk through that process that is on foot.
So you mentioned that the man was arrested in Surry
Hills in Sydney earlier this week. He's, now I imagined,
still in custody.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah, he's in custody. So he did appear in court
on Tuesday and he didn't apply for bail, so he'll
remain in custody now.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
The first interaction I had with this story was reading
Audrey's mother's words. She spoke directly to the Sydney Morning
Herald a few days ago about the impact of her
daughter's loss. What have we heard from the family, especially
in light of her death initially being deemed non suspicious,
and then an arrest mere weeks later.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, so before this man was charged with the alleged murder,
the family had, of course already had a funeral and
said their goodbyes to Audrey, and they set up a
GoFundMe page to help with the funds that came from
the unexpected death and funeral of Audrey. And I thought
i'd read out how they described Audrey because I think
it tells us a bit about who she was as
(06:21):
a person. They said, Audrey touched everyone, not just in
her community, but all over the country. She was the
light in many of our lives. There is no doubt
she brought endless laughter and joy to everyone. She was
the kindest soul to walk this earth and will always
be in our hearts. Now since it was revealed that
someone has been charged with her murder, the mum like
(06:43):
you said, Zara has also spoken to Sidney Morning Herald
about what she knows of Audrey's final moments. She told
the publication she'd actually had a conversation with her friends,
saying that she was going to catch a cab soon
and that she was just walking home and that she
was going to call a cab. She'd obviously gone along
the waterfront to try and get a cab because there
(07:04):
were none. So that kind of tells us what we
know about the last hour or so of her life
when she was trying to get home safely via a
cab but couldn't find one.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, and obviously we will learn more about the timeline
that led to her death once that court case kicks off.
But Billy, I do want to zoom out just for
a moment, because this alleged murder is by no means
an isolated incident here in Australia, and it does feel
(07:35):
like at specific moments in time the nation deals with
this theme of recurring domestic violence and violence against women.
Can you paint a bit more of a picture about this?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yeah, So, the nineteen year old's death marks the twenty
second Australian woman to be murdered this year, and that's
according to the Australian Femicide Watch. And obviously, just a reminder,
we're only months into this year, so that's twenty two
women in four months. That tally tracks every known Australian
woman and child killed as a result of murder, manslaughter
(08:10):
or neglect.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
When we uploaded this to Instagram, I was scrolling through
the comments, and amongst all of the grief being conveyed
in that comment section was quite a lot of anger
directed to Australia's political leaders, especially as we know we
are in the middle of an election cycle, and so
while not wanting to politicize this conversation, I am keen
(08:34):
to get a bit of a sense as to what
both sides of politics are proposing to do when it
comes to keeping women safe in this country.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I'm interested in your thoughts. I don't think it has
been an issue that has dominated this election cycle.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Not at all. I truly don't know if I've heard
no either of them talk about it on the campaign trail.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Which is surprising considering I feel like this time last
year there was a real moment of so many protests
and marches and a real national conversation about violence against women,
and it did cut through to the political landscape at
that time. But yeah, during this election campaign, it really
hasn't been spoken about.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
It's interesting the disconnect that emerges because so many people
I know are talking about it and posting about it,
and yet, as you said, it's not really being reflected
onto the national stage, so really interesting to unpack, but
we do have commitments from both sides.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Yeah, and before we get into what they're promising, I
might just do a quick overview of something that's called
a national plan because that is the main policy used
in this area. So in Australia we have something called
the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children
and it is a ten year plan. So it was
revealed by the government in twenty twenty two and so
(09:53):
that will take us through to twenty thirty two. And
it's actually the second plan of its kind because the
first one was launched by then Prime Minister Julia Gillard
in twenty ten. Now that first plan, which also was
a ten year plan, failed in its goal, which was
to see quote a significant and sustained reduction in violence
(10:14):
against women and their children. It did though, lead to
some new services, for example one eight hundred Respect, which
you might be familiar with, that is a helpline for
people dealing with domestic violence. That was a direct result
of that first National Plan. It also led to the
creation of our Watch, which you also might be familiar with.
(10:35):
But overall we did not see a reduction in the
prevalence of violence against women, and just for some context,
governments at all levels, because this wasn't just a federal
government plan. It was an agreement between the federal government
and the state and territory governments to deal with this crisis,
and they spent a collective three billion dollars on that
(10:55):
plan over the decade. So that one failed, and when
the new one was launched, it kind of tried to
learn from what didn't work in that first one. One
way did that is, for the first time, the new
plan said that it was going to include the importance
of engaging men and boys, and so that goes to
them taking more of a preventative approach with the second
(11:17):
plan and spending more resources on educating men and society
more broadly on the issue. One thing that I do
want to point out, though, is that since that national
plan has come into effect in twenty twenty two, the
number of women who have been killed by violence in
the country has actually increased every single year over the
last couple of years since this plan was launched. So
(11:40):
that kind of tells us that at the moment that
isn't quite working in terms of its specific goal of
reducing violence against women.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
And you've put this to the Minister for Women herself,
Katie Gallaher, and she's admitted and conceded that there is
so much more work to be done.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
And I also put it to the Prime Minister.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Yeah exactly. So with that forward view, what are they
both proposing can be done here?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
So I'll go through Labor and the Coalition. Earlier this
week Labor launched something called Building Australia's Future Labour's Commitment
to Women, which is their central policy platform when it
comes to women in Australia. Now, that policy document clearly
states every woman deserves to live in safety, free from
the threat of violence. It runs through what they've already
(12:30):
done in their current term of government. So that includes
four billion dollars in funding on gender based violence. It
includes boosting frontline services support and also investing in housing
for women to flee to. However, the party also acknowledges
that more must change urgently. Those are their words. Labour
says that if it is re elected, it will invest
(12:52):
eighty five million dollars in targeted approaches to identify and
respond to high risk perpetrators. So that's more of an
early intervention approach and Labor also said that it will
take a coordinated approach to engaging men and boys in
violence prevention as well as invest eighty million dollars in
quote breaking the cycles of trauma. And then they also
(13:14):
will have a more targeted approach for First Nations communities.
So they have said that they will deliver the first
ever national Aboriginal and Torrest Right Islander Family Safety Plan.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Okay, so that's what Labor is saying they will do
to address the rate of men's violence against women in
this country. What have we heard from the coalition?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
So the coalition has also proposed a plan to combat
the quote scourge of family and domestic violence. Specifically, they've
promised to support the extension of emergency payments to support
women and children fleeing domestic violence, as well as make
it an offense to use phones or computers to cause
a partner to fear their personal safety. Also, if the
(13:57):
Coalition is elected, it says that it will work with
states and territories to develop uniform knife flaws across the
country and it will also increase resources to the Australian
Center to counter child exploitation.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
So both sides of politics are acknowledging here that there
is an issue in the country when it comes to
men's violence against women, but perhaps going about fixing it
in different ways. Billy, thank you for taking us through
that story, and for any listeners if this has raised
any issues for you, a reminder that help is available
twenty four to seven at one eight hundred. Respect that's
(14:31):
one eight hundred seven three seven seven three to two.
Take care of yourselves and we'll be back later today.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda
Bunje Lung Calcuttin woman from Gadigol Country. The Daily oz
acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of
the Gatighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and
Torres Strain island and nations. We pay our respects to
the first peoples of these countries, both past and press
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